


youve got to look at the big picture

by reeseo



Category: DuckTales (Cartoon 2017)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Character Analysis, F/F, Sort Of, i just really love penny a lot :(
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-15
Updated: 2019-09-15
Packaged: 2020-10-19 06:26:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,428
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20652674
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reeseo/pseuds/reeseo
Summary: Penumbra couldn’t have cared less what happened to the duck afterwards. She was aggressively friendly towards her, despite Penumbra’s obvious distrust and general hatred towards Della, and worst of all, she gave her that infuriating nickname, as if she didn’t even care about her status in Tranquility.





	youve got to look at the big picture

**Author's Note:**

> i wrote the vast majority of this the day after the golden spear was released and then let it sit in my wip folder for. four months. now that penumbra and della are actually friends its a bit late but i wanted to get it out anyways :]

If you had to ask Penumbra what she thought about a certain Della Duck, she was most likely to shoot a random thing behind you and run away. The first words to come to mind would certainly be along the lines of “nefarious”, “infuriating” and “untrustworthy”, but Penumbra couldn’t just SAY that.

It had all started when that Earther had defeated the Mite. Though, she would hardly call that a “defeat”- it had simply wandered away happily, after devouring their weapons. Penumbra would’ve been much more content if Della had just killed the beast like she suggested (if she’d done that, Penumbra might’ve even been willing to tolerate her), but  _ no _ , she had to use  _ compassion _ and  _ empathy _ , words that the Lieutenant only really understood the meaning of because of her prolonged time with Lunaris.

Penumbra couldn’t have cared less what happened to the duck afterwards. She was aggressively friendly towards her, despite Penumbra’s obvious distrust and general hatred towards Della, and worst of all, she gave her that  _ infuriating _ nickname, as if she didn’t even care about her status in Tranquility.

She probably didn’t.

All in all, Della was so far an absolute pain in the neck, and Penumbra could not wait until she was out of her hair forever.

—

“Can’t you see she’s lying to you? UGH!” Penumbra yelled to herself, storming into her home.

Penumbra was definitely not jealous of Della, no matter what Lunaris said. Sure, she made it sound like the Moon was lesser, and boring, and made Earth sound colorful and exciting and beautiful, and all the Moonlanders absolutely adored her, but she was _ not _ jealous. The General could tease her all he liked, but he was more than definitely wrong about this.

Penumbra could at least admit to herself that Della was making her feel...  _ inferior _ . She was supposed to be the lieutenant, Tranquility was supposed to be the perfect world for them to be protected, and this alien could spend a few days here and have everyone fawning over her like she hadn’t completely infiltrated their defenses and was probably going to be the start of a total invasion.

Okay. Maybe she was a _ little _ bit jealous. But Della was completely upstaging her! Were none of her people grateful she had defended them from the Mite all these years? If it weren’t for that duck, Penumbra would still have something to do with her free time besides seethe over a creature half her size, who refused to reveal her clearly dangerous plans for the Moon. For the moment, it seemed her plans were to lull Penumbra and the other Moonlanders into a state of ease. Probably so she could catch them off guard and attack when least expected.

So Penumbra was constantly  _ on _ guard. She wasn’t about to get beaten by a small, soft duck whose most threatening attribute was the smell of her body odor. (Penumbra didn’t have a nose or know what “smell” meant, but Della had complained about it enough times that she got a sense of how treacherous it must be.)

—

Penumbra scowled at Lunaris. “I still don’t see the benefit of her staying with me.”

Lunaris turned to her from his position at his window. “Lieutenant, Della is our guest. We want her to be as happy and comfortable as possible while she stays here rebuilding her rocket, and I continue to trust you to be able to take care of that.”

Penumbra let out a huff of breath. “Sir, I understand, but-”

“Penumbra, we have been over this. She will not be staying with someone else. That is still an order.”

Penumbra shook her head in frustration and stormed out. With Della rooming with her, she hadn’t been able to get a wink of sleep these past handful of weeks. (That was a lie, but it’s what it felt like.) It was either her snoring, her loudly recounting obviously fake adventures to the crowd that had slowly accumulated, or loud sniffling that Penumbra was sure was meant to make her pity her.

The Lieutenant wouldn’t fall for that. Clearly a show of weakness to make her let her guard down, so Della could strike when she least expected.

—

One night, after what Penumbra called “patrol” to Della but was much closer to “flinging her spear at a drawing of her with all her might,” Penumbra walked in on Della having one of her… episodes. The duck had been powering through her building for several days in a row with little to no rest, and it appeared the lack of sleep was getting to her as she noisily wiped her beak and turned away from Penumbra at the door.

Penumbra nearly stormed to bed, but something that was  _ definitely not _ sympathy or worry settled low in her gut as Lunaris’s words echoed in her mind. She told herself it was merely her following through on orders to make Della’s stay pleasant and not any other motives whatsoever that made her set her gun and helmet on their placenext to her bed, and walk over hesitantly to Della.

“Uh… what’s… wrong?” she asked through clenched teeth. 

There was no point to her being there. Della had clearly managed through times like this on her own before, and now Penumbra had just fallen for the trap! She’d even felt the dastardly urge to-  _ eugh- put her arm reassuringly on her shoulder. _ Disgusting.

Della sighed forlornly and looked at the ground. “Penny, do you have a family?”

Gathering information on the enemy. A classic trick.

“I’ve worked very closely with the General most of my life.”

Not a bad deflection on Penumbra’s part. Here in Tranquility, she more or less considered all the moonlanders her “family”- they were her people, and as their second in command, it was her duty to protect them and to make sure they weren’t in harm’s way.

She would never tell that to Della, though.

The duck in question nodded like she understood, and pulled a picture out of her pocket. It was a picture Penumbra had seen enough times to be able to recognize by now, although she didn’t care enough to know who was in the image- Della was clear on one side, with the same annoyingly optimistic smile, scarf and jacket, alongside the two other ducks that made up 40% of her family. “It’s hard not to think about them all the time.”

Penumbra resisted the urge to scoff. “Of course it is. Aren’t you working on the Spear specifically to get back to them?”

Della almost cracked a grin at Penumbra’s no-nonsense attitude. “Good to see that you’re paying attention.”

Penumbra puffed up. “I’ll have you know that as the second-in-command in Tranquility-”

Della waved her hand dismissively, sighing again and setting her elbow on her mechanical knee. Penumbra had to wonder what she had gone through to need it. “The only thing that keeps them off my mind is building the Spear, but building the Spear is literally just to see them all, like you said. I was… alone, for over a decade.” Della shuddered a little, and pocketed the picture again. “The only person I had to talk to was myself.”

Before Penumbra could process it, Della had wrapped her arms around her middle in a hug, Penumbra’s hand moving somewhat automatically to where her gun would be, had she not put it down before coming over. “I’m glad you found me, Penny.”

Penumbra really, _ really _ wished she had just ignored Della once again and gone to bed. She awkwardly patted Della on the shoulder when she pulled away. “I’m… glad you vanquished the Mite.”

She really wasn’t, but she had to admit that the Mite’s disappearance helped  _ basically everyone else _ in Tranquility.

Della smiled softly. “What are friends for, y’know?”

_ Friends _ . Once again, Della acted like Penumbra didn’t openly despise her.

It wasn’t until Penumbra could hear her roommate’s loud snores once again that she realized she hadn’t corrected her a single time whenever she was called “Penny.”

—

Della did not sleep very much on the Moon.

As much as Penumbra complained about her snoring, it was, frankly, quite rare for Della to be seen doing anything besides working on her ship or tormenting the Lieutenant, often at the same time.

From what it looked like, however, Della’s work was paying off. Not only did she have a disturbingly large crowd, hanging onto every word as she fed them lies, but her rocket was nearly done as well. Only a few more weeks- maybe even days- until she was out of Penumbra’s life, and away from the Moon. Hopefully, she wouldn’t be coming back with a full invasion.

Penumbra was still certain she was planning something horrible. Her stories had just gotten more and more far-fetched— who would believe that her family had faced off a decades-old sorceress and  _ won?  _ Against an  _ army made of shadows,  _ no less, and getting out of it with barely a few scrapes?

The Moonlanders, apparently. 

After hearing how Della defeated the Mite (sacrificing their weapons and leaving them completely open to the threat of attack), they all believed anything she told them.

Penumbra looked up from her grumbling to see Della stumble into their shared unit, laughing and rubbing at her eyes. “I swear, they are such a fun crowd! Donald would never listen to me tell stories. Told me I was being dramatic.”

Penumbra rolled her eyes as hard as she could. “Because you  _ are _ being dramatic. I bet half of your stories are fake, just to see what you can get the people to believe.”

“Aww, Penny, you don’t really believe that. I even have the TV to prove that last one about Magica!”

“My _ name _ is Penumbra.”

Della grinned cheekily. “Whatever you say, Penny.”

She could not get off the Moon fast enough.

Penumbra’s huge statue in the plaza was basically meaningless, being hidden by Della’s project in every possible sense of the word. The Moonlanders absolutely adored her, and they adored everything they learned about Earth- despite all the hard work she and Lunaris put into making Tranquility a perfect haven for them all. If she  _ didn’t _ lack the emotional capacity to properly examine her resentment towards Della, Penumbra would probably say that she felt unwanted and unnecessary. Completely overshadowed by someone she couldn’t really say had actually given her a reason to be hated so much.

But she  _ did _ lack it.

So Penumbra kept making snide remarks to Della as often as possible, hoping one day she would catch on that Della Duck wasn’t someone who needed to be on the Moon.

—

Della’s ship finally worked. Even Penumbra couldn’t resist joining the crowd for this occasion, telling herself it was because she was happy it meant Della could leave before she could finish saying “moon mite.”

“Thanks to you all, I can finally get to my family back on Earth!” Della shouted triumphantly, accompanied by resounding whoops and cheers from her fans.

Even by someone who claimed to be her best friend, Penumbra was unacknowledged. Sure, Penumbra didn’t WANT Della in her unit, snoring up a storm and igniting constant hatred inside her, but Penumbra was still the one who HAD Della in her unit. All the Moonlanders were so happy for Della- as if Penumbra’s grueling work to keep her there on Lunaris’s orders were for nothing! They were all cheering for a planet they’d never been on, for an alien who told them wonderous stories about death traps and betrayal.

And Penumbra didn’t like it at all.

Before she knew it, she was up on the statue.

“If you all think Earth is so great, why don’t you just go already!”

That got the crowd’s attention. Della cast a quick surprised look at Penumbra, before turning around. A moonlander, Palus, clasped her hands together. “Can we please go with you?”

Penumbra’s neighbor, Gibbous, gasped. “We could get our very own dog!”

“Ooh! And dress it in slap bracelets!”

Della shot an apologetic look to the crowd. “I wish I could bring all of you, but the Spear is just too small, there’s no way you’d all fit.”

Della sank slightly lower on her knees. Penumbra hadn’t exactly known what to expect from her comment in the heat of her anger, but she knew things were going her way. And she was going to take advantage of it.

Penumbra resisted the urge to smirk. “But the great hero can do  _ anything _ ! Surely she could do it if she wanted to!”

A murmur ran through the crowd.

“Was it something I did? Was it something  _ you _ did?” “Are you…  _ embarrassed _ by our primitive Moon ways?”

“No!” Della was quick to reassure. “I really wish I could take you, but it’s just not possible.”

Now was Penumbra’s time to pounce. This time, her grin came around in full force as she climbed higher on the statue: “I thought nothing could stop the  _ amazing _ Della Duck. Too bad. A failure. A liar.” Penumbra paused. “And she snores.”

The crowd began to drift away. Penumbra heard some whispered sorrows and accusations, and thought she had finally won, when-

“Or maybe it IS possible!”

“What? No!”

Della stood up triumphantly. “Penny’s right! I learned rocket science, I rebuilt my ship- why can’t I take you all to Earth?”

“I DON’T KNOW! WHY?!” wailed Gibbous. “No, honey, she’s saying she  _ can!” _ Zenith shushed. (Honestly, Penumbra wasn’t sure if he’d be able to do anything without her.)

“Oh, really?! Ahoho! Thank you!”

Della was smiling, now. “You all helped me, this is the least I can do! Pack your bags, we’re all going to Earth!”

And just like that, Penumbra was forgotten again, as the crowd below them began to swell up in a chant. 

Penumbra growled, and snapped her spear in half, letting it clatter to the ground below her.

—

“She actually  _ liked _ you, Penumbra.” Lunaris said, turning away from her. “Said you reminded her of her…  _ brother _ .”

Penumbra’s eyes narrowed slightly. She knew Della wasn’t manipulating the Moonlanders, or Penumbra herself, but- despite everything Penumbra had said and done, still caring about her? Considering the two of them _friends?_

Lunaris had been the one person she thought she could trust inside and out, but now he had far more nefarious plans up his sleeve than Della had apparently  _ ever _ had. And now she was going back to Earth.

Penumbra turned her contemplative look outward, and watched the golden Spear fade into the distance, the General’s words weighing upon her.

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> come yell about dellumbra with me on tumblr @spaceray


End file.
